James Lyons (admiral)


James Aloysius "Ace" Lyons Jr. was an admiral in the United States Navy who served as Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet from 1985 to 1987 and who wrote a column about Seth Rich that was printed, but later retracted by The Washington Times.

Biography

Admiral Lyons enlisted in the Navy Reserve shortly after the end of World War II and was appointed to the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1952. He served in the U.S. Navy for over 35 years as a Surface Warfare Officer. He commanded the and . His shore assignments included wide and significant experience in strategic planning and national security affairs, leading to higher commands including Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Senior U.S. Military Representative to the United Nations and Deputy Chief of Naval Operations.
He earned post-graduate degrees from the U.S. Naval War College and the U.S. National Defense University.
After retiring from the Navy in 1987, he became the chief executive officer of LION Associates, LLC.
On March 1, 2018, the Washington Times published an article by Lyons prompting a conspiracy theory around the death of Democratic Party staffer Seth Rich. The article falsely claimed it was "well known in the intelligence circles" that Rich and his brother were paid by WikiLeaks for the DNC emails, which the leaks site published online, causing chaos in the Democratic party during the 2016 election. The family sued, and the article was retracted with an apology.
Lyons died on December 12, 2018 at the age of 91.